The ABCs of
Famous
South Carolina
Women
Created by:
James Bryan
Sara
Lee
Harris
Sanders
Ayers
Aa
Sara Lee Harris Ayers was born on the Catawba
Reservation near Rock Hill, daughter of a former
chief of the nation. She learned to make the famous
Catawba pottery selling at the Cherokee
Reservation in North Carolina and later in
Pennsylvania. She later moved to West Columbia,
but continued making the Catawba pottery. Ayers
received many awards and honors for her work,
examples of which are in the Native American
Museum
Catherine
Moore
Barry
Bb
Margaret Catherine (Kate) Moore, a Patriot, was born in 1752 in
Ireland, and later she and her family made a new life for
themselves in the Piedmont region of South Carolina. At the
age of fifteen, she married Andrew and settled in Spartanburg
County, across the Tyger River, about two miles from Walnut
Grove. Kate Barry was an excellent horsewoman, and she was
very familiar with the wilderness and the Indian trails around
her plantation. The Moore family became the leaders of the
patriot cause in that part of the upcountry. Their home, Walnut
Grove Plantation, became the focal point of anti-loyalist forces
during the Revolutionary War. When General Daniel Morgan
assembled his troops at Hanna's Cowpens, thirteen miles from
Walnut Grove, Kate Barry rode out to give the call to arms to
the Patriots in the surrounding countryside.
Charlotta
Bass
Charlotta Amanda Spears Bass, born in Sumter, was an
Bb
American educator, newspaper publisher-editor, and civil
rights activist. Bass was probably the first African
American woman to own and operate her own newspaper
in the United States; she published the California Eagle
from 1912 until 1951. In 1952 Bass became the first
African American woman nominated to run for national
office as the Progressive Party's Vice Presidential
candidate.
Mary
McLeod
Bethune
Mary McLeod Bethune was born in Mayesville, SC on July 10,
1875, one of 17 children born to Samuel and Patsy McLeod,
Bb
former slaves. She was educated at the Presbyterian Mission
School in Mayesville, Scotia Seminary and the Moody Bible
Institute. Her interest in education led her in 1904 to found the
Daytona Normal and Industrial Institute for Negro Girls (now
Bethune-Cookman College ) in Florida, where she served as
president from 1904-1942 and from 1946-47. Her honors
include the Haitian Medal of Honor and Merit, and the
Commander of the Order of the Star of Africa from Liberia. She
was the first African American woman to be involved in the
White House, assisting four different presidents.
Idela
Bodie
Since the 1970s this Ridge Spring author has delighted South
Bb
Carolina children with her books about life in the Palmetto
State. Her award-winning historical fiction titles include The
Secret Life of Telfair Inn and The Mystery of Edisto Island.
Mrs. Bodie also wrote a series of books about heroes and
heroines of the Revolution featuring notable figures in our
early history such as Francis Marion, William Jasper,
Rebecca Motte, and Thomas Sumter. Written for adults, South
Carolina Women chronicles the lives of 51 important women
from throughout our state's history.
Martha
Bratton
With her husband was away fighting, Martha Bratton was left in
charge of the gunpowder hidden on their property in South
Carolina. The British were given a tip about the gunpowder and
Bb
went to take the powder. Bratton was told but did not have
enough time to move the gunpowder. Not wanting the British to
get hold of the ammunition, Bratton came up with another
plan. She poured a trail of powder far away from its location
and, when she heard the British approaching lit the trail. The
British were furious and demanded to know who had blown up
the ammunition. Even with the threat of severe punishment
Bratton willfully replied, “It was I who did it…let the
consequence be what it will, I glory in having prevented the
mischief contemplated by the cruel enemies of my country.”
Mary
Boykin
Chesnut
Cc
Mary Boykin Chesnut was born on 31 March 1823 in
Pleasant Hill, South Carolina. Her father, Stephen
Miller, was the governor of South Carolina, and her
mother was Mary Boykin. Mary was opposed to
slavery and believed in the southern states' right to
secede from the Union. Between February 1861 and
July 1865, Mary kept a 400,000 word diary of the
War for Southern Independence. Mary died on 22
November 1886, but her diary was not published
until 1905. It is titled A Diary from Dixie.
Septima
Pointsette
Clark
Septima Poinsette Clark is considered to be one of the
mothers of the civil rights movement. As an active member
of the NAACP, she helped the organization fight to obtain
Cc
equal pay for Black teachers who were paid substantially
less than White teachers. As a teacher and state employee,
Clark was prohibited from being a member of the NAACP
and was fired in 1956 for refusing to relinquish her NAACP
membership. Later, Mrs. Clark moved to Tennessee to work
for Highlander Folk School where one of the participants
was Rosa Parks. Between 1957 and 1970, with the
assistance of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference
(SCLC), she had established and trained teachers for 897
citizenship schools in the South.
Carol
Connor
Cc
Carol Connor was born January 2, 1950 in Kingstree. She
graduated from Converse College in 1972 and received her Juris
Doctor from the University of South Carolina in 1976. Upon
graduation from Law School, Judge Connor worked as an
Assistant South Carolina Attorney General from 1976 to 1977,
and, in 1977 she joined the Richland County Public Defenders
Office until 1981 when she entered private practice in Richard
County. She was elected to the South Carolina Family Court in
1983 and served until 1988. She became the first woman to serve
as a South Carolina Circuit judge, having been elected in 1988,
and was also the first woman to serve as an acting member of
the South Carolina Supreme Court. She was elected to the South
Carolina Court of Appeals in 1993 where she served until her
retirement due to illness.
Ann Pamela
Cunningham
Ann Pamela Cunningham (1816-1875), America’s first historic
preservationist founded the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association,
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to save President George Washington’s home. Ann Pamela
Cunningham received a letter from her mother in 1853 informing
her of the deplorable conditions of President George
Washington’s home, Mount Vernon. Cunningham immediately
began a campaign to save the home site by writing to the
Charleston Mercury, asking Southern women to save the home,
and soon she sought support of women in the North resulting in
1854, the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association of the Union was
created. In 1858 the Association was able to purchase and to
preserve George Washington’s home.
Hattie
Logan
Duckett
Hattie Duckett is best remembered for the Phyllis
Dd
Wheatley Association that she organized in 1919,
Hattie Duckett is one of Greenville's most important
leaders. Not only did she direct efforts to give African
Americans opportunities to further their development,
she opened her heart and home to those who needed
any kind of help. Mrs. Duckett was honored by the
board of trustees of the Greenville County School
System by naming the Fine Arts Center building after
this fine leader. Duckett was born in 1885 and died in
1956.
Marian
Wright
Edelman
Ee
Born in Bennettsville the youngest of five children of a
Baptist preacher, Edelman attended Spellman College in
Atlanta and Yale University, where she received her law
degree in 1963. She began her career as an attorney for the
NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, serving as the
director of the Jackson, Miss., office and becoming the first
African American woman admitted to the Mississippi bar.
In 1968 she moved to Washington, D.C., and started the
Washington Research Project, which later (1973) became
the Children's Defense Fund (CDF), a child advocacy lobby.
Mary
Lillian
Ellison
Ee
Mary Lillian Ellison, better known by her ring name, The
Fabulous Moolah, was an American female professional
wrestler. Born in Kershaw County, she grew up in
Tookiedoo, twelve miles from Columbia. She won the NWA
World Women's Championship in 1956 and was the most
prominent holder of the title for approximately the next thirty
years. In the 1980s, she joined the World Wrestling
Federation (WWF) as part of the Rock 'n' Wrestling
Connection storyline, feuding with Cyndi Lauper and Wendi
Richter, the latter of whom defeated her for the WWF
Women's Championship in 1984. She was inducted into the
WWF Hall of Fame in 1995, becoming the first woman to be
inducted.
Sarah
Mae
Flemming
Mae Flemming Brown (June 28, 1933-June 16, 1993[1]) was an
African American woman who was expelled from a bus in
Ff
Columbia, seventeen months before Rosa Parks refused to
surrender her seat on an Alabama bus in 1955. On June 22,
1954, Flemming boarded a bus to go to work. She took the
only empty seat, which she believed began the rows in which
black riders were allowed to sit. The driver challenged her, and
humiliated, she signaled to get off at the next stop. The bus
driver blocked her attempt to exit through the front of the bus
and punched her in the stomach as he ordered her out the
rear door. Flemming's lawsuit against the bus company played
an important role later in the Parks case.
Susan
Pringle
Frost
In the post-Civil War period, a notable "new woman" was
Charleston's Susan Pringle Frost . A member of an illustrious old
Ff
family, Frost constantly challenged convention, as a federal
district court stenographer, as a real estate woman with an office
in the professional district, as a women's rights advocate. She
helped get women admitted to the College of Charleston and
headed city and state National Woman's Party efforts to achieve
women's suffrage. In a rapidly expanding sweep, beginning
about 1909, Miss Frost bought and renovated numerous houses
in the historic East Battery district. Indebtedness mounted, and
to aid her efforts she founded and for many years headed the
Preservation Society of Charleston.
Emily
Geiger
As General Nathaniel Greene retreated before the British from
Ninety-Six during the Revolutionary War,, he was anxious to
send an order to General Thomas Sumter, the Fighting
Gamecock, who was then encamped on the Wateree. No one
Gg
was willing to run the risk of traveling a section of country that
was controlled by Tories. Finally a young girl, Emily Geiger,
offered her services. Greene wrote a message, which he gave to
the girl, but he also asked her to memorize it. Emily set out, and
was safe until the second day, when she was caught by British
scouts. She was held by them, waiting to be searched. Emily
used the time to eat the written message. Finding nothing on
her, the British released her. By taking another route, she
succeeded in delivering her message. Soon, Sumter soon joined
the main army at Orangeburg.
Althea
Gibson
Althea Gibson was born in the rural community of Silver, and
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her family later moved to Harlem where she came to the
attention of Dr. Walter Johnson who became her patron. She
was the first African American to win championships at
Grand Slam tournaments such as Wimbledon , the French
Open and the US Open. Gibson won a total of 11 major titles
in the 1950s including singles at the French Open (1958),
Wimbledon (1957, 1958) and US Open (1957, 1958). She was
the Associate Press Female Athlete of the Year (1957, 1958)
and the first black female to receive the award. Following her
retirement from tennis she continued to serve on various
boards and commissions related to athletics.
Wil
Lou
Gray
One of the most important women in South Carolina
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educational history, Wil Lou Gray dedicated her life and
career to creating opportunities to learn for the
disadvantaged people of South Carolina. She rose above the
race and class barriers in her native state by focusing her
energy on the eradication of illiteracy through progressive
educational programs designed for adults. In a state rife with
bigotry and segregation, she “championed equal education
for both races without being dismissed as an idle dreamer or
revolutionary.
Grimké
Sisters
Gg
The Grimké sisters, Sarah and Angelina, grew up on a
slave owning plantation in South Carolina, but
strongly disapproved of the practice of slavery. They
spoke out against both slavery and the exclusion of
women from public life. Sarah Moore Grimké (1792-
1873) went to Philadelphia in 1821 where she joined
the Quakers. Her sister Angelina (1805-1879) followed
in 1829. Lucretia Mott was an important influence on
their development as reformers with the formation of
the. Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society in 1835.
Lauren
Hutton
Hh
Lauren Hutton was born in Charleston, and she is
an former model and actress. She attended Ashley
Hall before graduating from Tulane University. In
the 70s she was a successful model for the Ford
Agency before moving to acting. She is best known
for her starring roles in the movies American
Gigolo , Zorro, the Gay Blade, and Lassiter, and
also for her fashion modeling career.
Issaqueena,
a legend
Issaqueena fell in love with David Francis, a silversmith who
Ii
lived in what is now the town of Ninety Six, South Carolina.
Learning that her people planned a surprise attack on the
settlement, Issaqueena mounted her horse to warn the settlers.
Issaqueena and David fled to what is now Stumphouse
Mountain north of Walhalla to escape the fury of her betrayed
tribe. The lovers lived in a large, hollowed-out tree or
Stumphouse. Finally tracked down by her tribesmen,
Issaqueena raced to a nearby falls (now Issaqueena Falls) and
plunged out of sight into the cataract. Believing her dead, the
warriors gave up the search.
Henrietta
Johnson
Henrietta de Beaulieu Dering Johnston (ca. 1674 – March 9,
Jj
1729) was a pastelist of uncertain origin active in the South
Carolina colony in North America. She began to work as a
portrait artist in Charles Town (now Charleston), making her
the first known professional woman artist in America. She is
both the earliest recorded female artist and the first known
pastelist working in the English colonies. About forty portraits
by Johnston are known to survive; these tend to depict
members of her social circle and, later, of her husband's
Charleston congregation. Many of her South Carolina portraits
depict members of Huguenot families that had settled in the
New World, including the Prioleaus, Bacots, and duBoses.
Mammie
“Peanut”
Johnson
Peanut Johnson, born in Ridgeway, played professional
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baseball for three seasons, from 1953 to 1955. Mamie tried out,
and made the Indianapolis Clowns, a Negro League team. At
the time, the Clowns were the only team in the league to feature
women as players, so Johnson played against all-male
teams. While she was pitching her first game with the Clowns,
Hank Baylis, a batter on the opposing team, yelled to her, "What
makes you think you can strike a batter out? Why, you aren't
any larger than a peanut!" Mamie struck him out, and from that
day was known as "Peanut." During her tenure, she won thirtythree games and lost eight. Her batting average ranged from
.262 to .284.
Eartha
Kitt
Eartha Kitt was born on a cotton plantation in South
Kk
Carolina, but was given away by her mother and sent to live
with an aunt in Harlem, at the age of eight. With an enduring
career that has spanned theater, cabaret, television, and the
recording industry, Eartha Kitt has become nothing less
than a household name. Many people remember her best
as the original Catwoman in the Batman television series.
She is an international star who has given new meaning to
the word versatility. Also, she is one of only a handful of
performers to be nominated twice for both a Tony Award
and a Grammy Award as well as for an Emmy.
Martha
Daniell
Logan
Martha Daniell Logan was born in Charles Town, daughter of a
landgrave. She inherited her father’s property. After her husband’s
Ll
death, her passion was gardening, and with this she wrote
Gardner's Kalendar, the first American treatise on gardening. She
earned a reputation not only as a woman of letters but also as a
savvy businesswoman and a gifted horticulturist. Logan's writings
are an essential source for information about women's culture in
the colonial South. Her treatise on gardening, for example, not only
describes the sort of work expected of women in the colonial South
but also expresses many shared cultural values. Logan's writing
and gardening allowed her access to some of the most influential
horticulturists of her day.
Darla
Moore
Moore was born to in Lake City. She graduated from the
University of South Carolina in 1975 with a BA in Political
Science. After school, she worked for a political research
Mm
firm in Washington, DC. In 1981, Moore received an MBA
from George Washington University and joined other MBAs
at the Chemical Bank’s training program. During the 1980s,
Moore made a name for herself by taking over companies in
bankruptcy and making them profitable. By the early 1990s,
she was the highest paid woman in banking. In 1991, Moore
married Richard Rainwater. She was named president of
Rainwater, Inc in 1993, aged 39. Fortune Magazine named
Moore one of the 50 Most Powerful Women In Business in
1998 and 1999.
Rebecca
Motte
Rebecca Motte was the daughter of Robert Brewton, an
English gentleman who settled in Charles Town. In 1758
Rebecca married Jacob Motte, and settled at Buckhead,
Mm
situated on the south side of the Congaree became her
summer residence. After the Americans gained Camden, the
British turned Motte’s plantation into a small fort, surrounding
it with a deep trench end inside raised a lofty parapet. Soon
the Americans saw that the home must be burned. Mrs. Motte
had in her possession a bow & several arrows brought from
the East Indies, especially prepared to carry combustible
material. The arrows set fire to the roof in three different
places forcing the British to surrender; soldiers from both
armies climbed to the roof and extinguished the fire.
Annie
Green
Nelson
Born in Darlington County, Annie Green Nelson was the oldest
of 14 children. Her parents instilled honesty, truth, devotion,
and love into their children. Her education started at a five-
Nn
month school on the Parrot's Plantation in her home state;
later she attended Benedict College and Voorhees College.
Annie Green Nelson studied drama at the University of South
Carolina when she was 80 years old. Nelson's first published
work, a poem titled "What Do You Think of Mother?" appeared
in the Palmetto Leader newspaper in 1925. Nelson's books,
After the Storm (1945), The Dawn Appears, Don't Walk on My
Dreams, and others portray the lifestyles of average black
people. She is the first African American South Carolina
woman to have novel published.
Mary
Simms
Oliphant
As the granddaughter of William Gilmore Simms, she was a
natural choice to update his 1840 history of the state. Her
work on this project was begun shortly after her graduation
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from the College for Women in Charleston. By the next year,
shortly after her marriage to Albert D. Oliphant, the book was
finished. Mrs. Oliphant made a successful presentation to the
Board of Education which adopted her book as a text for use
for the next five years. This was in 1917 (before women had
the right to vote) and thus began a long career of writing
history texts. After updating her grandfather's book for many
years, in 1932 she wrote one of her own. This text book
spanned the generations in its use by SC middle school
students from the 1930's until 1985.
Peggy
Parrish
Peggy Parish was born in Manning, South Carolina on July 14,
1927. She developed a love for reading at an early age and, even
as a child, enjoyed writing very much. She attended the
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University of South Carolina and received a Bachelor of Arts
degree in English. At the time of her graduation, not many
people were becoming teachers. While visiting her brother in
Kentucky, Peggy was persuaded to enter the teaching
profession, and this is when Peggy began writing. Her most
famous creation of Amelia Bedelia in 1963. Peggy went on to
write 11 more Amelia Bedelia books. Sadly, Peggy died of an
aneurysm on November 19, 1988. Her spirit, though, is very
much alive, thanks in part to her loving nephew, Herman Parish.
Julia
Mood
Peterkin
Julia Mood Peterkin won the Pulitzer Prize for Literature in 1929 for
her feminist comedy Scarlet Sister Mary. Raised by a Gullahspeaking nurse in South Carolina, Peterkin was a native speaker of
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the language, and wrote with a richness of texture that was not
found in works by white authors. She was praised for avoiding the
racist stereotypes that other white writers commonly employed
when writing of black culture. In the mid-1930s, Peterkin was
employed by the Federal Writers' Project of the Works Projects
Administration (WPA) to collect folklore from the African Americans
in her community and white communities on Waccamaw Neck and
Sandy Island in Georgetown County, and the Freewoods and
Holmestown Road in Horry County, just up the Waccamaw River,
from Murrells Inlet.
Eliza
Lucas
Pinckney
Eliza Lucas Pinckney, probably the first important
agriculturalist of the United States! She was still quite young,
Pp
her family moved to a farming area near Charleston, South
Carolina, where her mother died soon after. By age sixteen,
Eliza was left to take care of her siblings and run three
plantations when her father, a British military officer, had to
return to the Caribbean. Starting in 1739, she began cultivating
and creating improved strains of the indigo plant from which a
blue dye can be obtained. Eliza also experimented with other
crops. She planted a large fig orchard, with the intention of
drying figs for export and experimented with flax, hemp and
silk. At age twenty-two she married Charles Pinckney.
Elizabeth
Allston
Pringle
As a young widow in the 1870s, Elizabeth Pringle managed
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the farm she once shared with her husband as well as the
Georgetown County farm where she grew up. To generate
additional income, she sold a weekly column describing
life to the New York Sun. Readers were particularly
interested in her stories about the daily lives of African-
American workers. In 1914, her collected columns were
published as A Woman Rice Planter. A second volume,
Chronicles of Chicora Wood, was published in 1921 and
related her memories of childhood, the Civil War, and
Reconstruction.
Queen of
the
Cofitachiqui
The Cofitachiqui were considered one
of the most highly civilized tribes of
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their time. This reputation prompted
de Soto to locate the tribe. He
kidnapped their leader and demanded
that she take him to places of great
wealth. After several days, the Queen
of the Cofitachiqui escaped,
accompanied by several of de Soto's
men.
Dorcas
Nelson
Richardson
Dorcas Nelson was the daughter of Captain John Nelson of
South Carolina, a native of Ireland. At the age of 20, Dorcas
Nelson married Captain Richard Richardson in 1761, and moved
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to her husband's home, about twenty miles up the river, near
the junction of the Congaree and the Wateree. Following the fall
of Charleston, the county was overrun with British troops and
Tories who took possession of the Richardson plantation,
which they made British headquarters. When the British officers
discovered that Captain Richardson had gathered patriots
around him and joined forces with Marion, they made offers of
pardon, wealth, and promotion to Dorcas if she would use her
influence to have her husband join forces with them. She
refused to even lay the matter before her husband.
Marie
Cromer
Seigler
Ss
Marie Cromer Seigler (1882 - 1964), educator and national
pioneer in agricultural instruction. In 1910, as teacher and
principal of Talatha School, she founded a Girls' Tomato Club,
the first of many such clubs nationwide and a forerunner, along
with the Boys' Corn Clubs, of the national 4-H Clubs, supported
by the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture. Marie Cromer said of her
efforts to encourage girls and young women interested in
agriculture, "I made up my mind I was going to do something
for country girls." With the support of Aiken Superintendent of
Education Cecil H. Seigler, whom she married in 1912, she
established Home Demonstration clubs and created
Home Economics courses in Aiken schools. She was honored
by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1953 for her role as a
founder of 4-H Clubs.
Modjeska
Monteith
Simkins
Ss
Born in Columbia in 1899, Ms. Simkins was a school
teacher who was active in the South Carolina chapter
of the NAACP. Her experience in the classroom
helped attorneys shape a critical lawsuit against
Clarendon County. The case became one of a group
of similar suits from around the South that led to the
US Supreme Court's 1954 decision that separate
schools were not equal and thus violated the 14th
Amendment to the Constitution.
Lily
Strickland
Ss
Composer, writer, artist. Lily Strickland was born in 1884 in
Anderson. Her father died when she was young, leaving Lily
and her brothers to grow up in the Anderson home of her
grandparents, Judge and Mrs. J. Pinckney Reed. She attended
Anderson schools and began studying piano at the age of six.
Encouraged by her family, she published her first composition
while still in her teens and studied piano and composition at
Converse College . In 1905 she received a scholarship for study
at the Institute of Musical Arts in New York (the forerunner to
Julliard). Strickland spent the rest of her life composing,
writing, and painting all over the world as she followed her
husband to his various jobs. Strickland published 395 musical
works for popular, church, and children’s performances. Her
early works displayed the influences of life in the South.
Inez
Tenenbaum
Tt
Inez Moore Tenenbaum is currently serving as the Chairman of the
U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. Ms. Tenenbaum was
elected South Carolina's State Superintendent of Education in 1998
and completed her second term in 2007. Throughout her career, Ms.
Tenenbaum has been an energetic and determined advocate for
children and families and has extensive experience in administrative
and regulatory matters. During her tenure as South Carolina's State
Superintendent of Education, student achievement in South Carolina
improved at the fastest rate in the nation, with scores increasing on
every state, national, and international tests administered. At the end
of Ms. Tenenbaum's tenure, the prestigious journal Education Week
ranked South Carolina number one in the country for the quality of
its academic standards, assessment, and accountability systems.
Jane
Black
Thomas
She could be called South Carolina's first feminist. Defying
expectations of women in the Revolutionary War era, stories of Jane
Thomas reveal her as a fearless foe and first-class friend to the Patriot
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cause. While her husband fought elsewhere, Jane was left "tending the
home fires" of their Spartanburg county farm. Tory troops arrived to
capture a supply of ammunition stored on the her property. As soldiers
approached the house, Jane and her children formed a production line
and fed bullets as fast as they could to her brother-in-law, Josiah
Culbertson. Culbertson fired from one window of the cabin then moved
to another so rapidly the Tories thought they were up against a large
Patriot guard. Finally, Jane burst out of the cabin, sword in hand, and
dared the Tories to advance further. Intimidated, they retreated and the
ammunition was saved for America.
Elizabeth
Timothy
As editor and publisher of the South Carolina Gazette, she was
America's first female newspaper owner, editor, and publisher. Her
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husband Lewis began the paper with financial backing from Benjamin
Franklin but died in 1738. To continue publication and fulfill their
contact with Franklin, the couple's 13 year-old son Peter was named
publisher on the Gazette's masthead; however it was Elizabeth who
edited and published the paper for the next eight years. At the time, the
printing process was extremely labor intensive and printed materials
were highly prized. When 21-year-old Peter took over the paper in
1746, Elizabeth opened a bookstore and continued to provide books
and pamphlets to the colonists of Charles Towne.
Jean
Toal
Tt
Born in Columbia, Jean Hoefer Toal is the first woman and
the first Roman Catholic to serve as Chief Justice of the
Supreme Court of South Carolina. Toal graduated from
Agnes Scott College in 1965 and the University of South
Carolina School of Law in 1968, where she was Managing
Editor of the South Carolina Law Review. As a lawyer, she
argued before the United States Supreme Court on behalf of
the Catawba Nation. She represented Richland County as a
Democrat in the South Carolina House of Representatives
for 13 years before being elected to the South Carolina
Supreme Court in 1988. She was elected Chief Justice in
2000. She served as the President of the Conference of
Chief Justices from July 2007-July 2008.
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Angelica
Singleton
Van Buren
Vv
Born in Wedgefield, Angelica Singleton Van Buren, born Sarah
Angelica Singleton was the daughter-in-law of the 8th United
States President Martin Van Buren. She was married to the
President's son, Abraham Van Buren. She assumed the post of
First Lady because the president's wife had died 17 years earlier.
and he remained unwed throughout the rest of his life. She was
related by marriage to Dolley Madison, and as first lady she
brought an air of sophistication. She married Abraham Van Buren
on November 27, 1838, in Wedgefield. After Martin was defeated
for re-election in 1841 , Angelica and her husband lived at the Van
Buren home in Kinderhook, NY, wintering at her family home in
South Carolina. From 1848 until her death, she lived in New York
City.
Elizabeth
O’Neill
Verner
Vv
Elizabeth O’Neill Verner was born in Charleston, daughter of
a prosperous rice factor and lived a life of privilege mid1890's. In 1900 her parents, recognizing her talent, sent her
to Philadelphia to study at the Pennsylvania Academy of Art
under Thomas Anchutes. She returned to Charleston in 1903
at the time of her father's death, to that her father’s business
was unstable. Her etchings, drypoints and pastels of
Charleston are her best known works. She also made many
drawings in Charleston and in other places around the
world. The South Carolina Arts Commission awards the
Elizabeth O’Neill Verner Governor’s Awards for the Arts in
her honor.
Juanita
Willmon-Goggins
Ww
Juanita Willmon-Goggins is a trailblazer. Four years after
the first black men since Reconstruction were elected to the
South Carolina legislature in 1970, Willmon-Goggins became
the first African-American woman elected to the state's
general assembly. That same year, 1974, she was appointed
as the first African-American woman to serve on the United
States Civil Rights Commission. A native of Pendleton,
South Carolina, Willmon-Goggins graduated from the
Anderson County Training School. At South Carolina State
University, she earned a degree in home economics
education, graduating in 1957.
Xx
Virginia
Durant
Covington
Young
Yy
Virginia D. Covington Young was born in Georgetown, but
the family moved to Marion where much of her life was
spent. .During the Civil War, she began to write short stories
and novellas under pseudonyms for magazines. She
moved to Mississippi where her husband died. Returning to
South Carolina, she married again and began the patter
followed by many suffragists. She joined the Woman’s
Christian Temperance Union. Her activism continued with
the founding of the SC Equal Rights Association, which
became affiliated with the National American Woman
Suffrage Association. The rest of her life was dedicated to
attaining the right to vote, which came after her death with
the federal amendment in 1919. She continued writing
during her life and is credited with three novels.
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South Carolina’s history is
filled with women who
contributed to the
advancement of our state.
South
Carolina
This PowerPoint addresses
only a few of the many
women who have left a mark
on each page of our history.